George Jetson was born on July 31, 2022, and 40 years later, George and his wife Jane will be living in the Skypad Apartments in Orbit City. Rosie, their robot maid, will keep the home clean. George will work as a Digital Index Operator at Spacely Space Sprockets and only will need to work a few hours a day starting at 11 am and only a few days a week, because he will be surrounded by labor-saving devices that he will monitor with flat-screen TVs, and he will press buttons to make things. He will go to work in his flying car that has a panoramic bubble windshield.

If you have any idea what I am talking about, then you are either from Generation X or a Baby Boomer. Millennials and Gen Z are shaking their heads, like my kids who have no idea who the Jetsons are. When I was growing up, I loved sitting in front of the TV on Saturday morning waiting to hear the familiar tune and lyrics, “Meet George Jetson…” The Jetsons was the first show broadcast in color on ABC, first airing 40 years ago, in September 1962. Produced by Hanna-Barbera, the animated sitcom originally ran for only 2 years before new episodes were made in the 1980s, ending with the final episode in 1990.

This is our technology issue, where we highlight new innovations that will have us working less, like George Jetson. Artificial intelligence and machine learning are improving our diagnostic skills and finding trends on our imaging devices that we cannot make out with our own eyes. Virtual reality offers efficient ways to teach residents and fellows. In the new Case Western Reserve University and Cleveland Clinic Health Education Campus medical school, anatomy labs are performed on 3D touchscreens that allow students to zoom in and rotate anything within a cadaver. Surgical training occurs in simulators. Thinking beyond education, what will the retina clinic of the future look like? Can we predict with the amazing accuracy of The Jetsons’ creators where we are going?

In the years between when the show first aired and now, many of the robotic devices and cool technologies the family used on a regular basis came to fruition. We have video calling, flat-screen televisions, hyperloops, Sony Aibo robot dogs, self-driving cars, touchscreen ordering of food, iMacs, and even Roomba robotic vacuums. Flying cars are already being conceived. We can only hope the technology we have will improve our work-life balance like in The Jetsons. Life in Orbit City was nice. I am hoping the next 40 years brings improved efficiency that will give us more time to not be at work, not just see more patients. RP